According to his acknowledgments page, Patrick Cockburn originally conceived The Jihadis Return as a kind of clarion call to the West, sounding the alarm about the growing power and influence of ISIS and other al-Qa’ida-style jihadi movements in Syria and Iraq. Given the current state of our media’s coverage of the Middle East, with near daily updates about the newest grisly execution video or the latest teenaged recruit to pack off to Syria to fight the bad fight, all underlined by an incessant B-roll of Kalashnikov-toting ISIS militiamen waving the ominous black flag, it can be difficult to recall that a year ago, few in the West had even heard of ISIS, and the War on Terror was thought by many to be all but won.